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For some strange reason I have been regularly approached at least twice a month in the past 6 years by senior executives asking me to get them a job. They don’t always spell this out (very often they do) but no matter what the context, the point is basically the same. Ok, the reasons are not so strange since I have been perceived a search guy and admittedly there are some pretty bizarre associations with this term.

I have also had the privilege to formally guide some of great leaders in so called outplacement programs.

My advise is consistent, here goes the bottom line (I wont’ include those everybody knows/should know about networking, etc.):

1. Change your perspective! Consider that the conditions that helped you make a great career have changed and they will never return. The expectations have changed. The patterns have changed. Work itself has changed (you probably noticed). There is great confusion even in the Fortune 100. One thing is sure: the career model from the industrial age (graduate from the right university with honors, do as you’re told and play the game right) no longer works: the game is changing. Stop thinking about careers, “where you can learn and apply your knowledge and 20 years experience” and similar nonsense. The new reality is based on Alliances: you partner up for specific initiatives. Read the book!

2. Reflect! What do you want? What do YOU want? Why that? Has your career up to this point reflected what you wanted? In what respects? Do you have a mission? This last one is not a bullshit question despite the fact the the majority of employees in management roles have absolutely no mission other than staying in the role and keep on making the bucks and this is totally fine… sort of. Some people notice when they look back on their career that there were very specific things driving their moves but they never became aware of them. Mentioning a few here would take them out of context and make them look cheesy, but these drivers are key for recognizing your mission and moving forward. What’s been driving you now (this may change every 7-10 years or so)? If your answer is that you’re an entrepreneur stuck in the body of a corporate manager(good at spotting opportunities, building teams that get things done and ready to take risks), stop reading what follows and continue here.

3. Face reality: if you are lucky, your mission maybe exactly what you’ve been doing, which means you have tons of case studies in this department. If you are less lucky you may have absolutely no expertise. Example: maybe you’ve been a GM fulfilling a commercial role and discovered that your mission is to make customers happy – something that’s been missing from you KPIs. No worries, though: use what you have, learn what must – like always. The beauty of today’s market place is that you can call yourself whatever you want if you can do it credibly.

4. Research! Look around the market to see what’s going on in the field of your mission. Make lists: companies, CEO’s, chairmen, board members: people who could be your future boss/alliance. Look into company specific problems and develop solutions. Make more lists: left column: identified problems, right column: possible solutions. Read books on the topics your mission covers (hopefully you won’t start just now). Combine ideas and solutions. Work some of them out on a piece of paper. Create edgy presentations. Result: you’ll stop being a candidate and will emerge a business solution. You are now in a category of your own with virtually no competition. Yes, you’ll still face obstacles, but competition won’t be one of them.

5. Approach your future boss/alliance partner.

If you can find somebody you have a great relationship with who can introduce you, great. There is nothing easier to introduce a great guy with a mission and a potential solution to a real problem or situation to the person who has the pain (as opposed to introducing somebody who is just looking for a job).

If there is nobody to introduce you, do it directly, this is one of the values linkedin offers. By now you can shoot out an email/inmail saying something like Hi John, I understand you are tackling xy problem; I see a solution along the lines of abc, if you’re up for a chat about this perhaps we can have a chat.

I know about a guy who had worked for a company that was acquired by IBM. A year after the acquisition was completed he started to approach companies that were rumored to be acquired or already in the process and offered that he can guide them through the process. Most agreed. Clear solution to a clear situation.

This works on almost all levels and most functional areas. Lots of managers are out there with problems in their mind that could be solved with the right person, but the pain to go through a formal hiring process prevents them from making the move (brief HR, deal with agencies sending the wrong resumes, interviewing tons of people, re-brief HR together with the agency, sitting through useless meetings related to the process, etc.). For them such an approach when the solution is falling on their lap is a godsend and it’s easier to eliminate HR than to deal with it.

One more thing: the beauty of this approach is that it takes about the same amount of time and effort as the conventional alternative: shooting out resumes indiscriminately, thinking about the right cover letter, agonizing about follow up calls and emails, trying to comply with unwritten rules and thinking about insignificant things (what’s the dress code and similar), prepare for stupid interview questions, dealing with incompetent bureaucrats, trying to figure out the reasons for rejections and being ignored and many more; but unlike the conventional industrial age approach, this one is intelligent thus it feels much better.

Because they have been pretty lucky, senior executives are not the best job seekers; but times are changing, the concept of an industrial age career is over and senior executives must also adjust to the changing conditions, meaning that they must stop doing the very things they were doing to get their first job.

1. Do not send resumes to anybody! Especially don’t send it to everybody, it is not a flyer. If you shoot it out indiscriminately you disrespect your whole life and literally devalue (discount) yourself.

2. Forget executive search firms, they can’t help you! If they could, they’d already be talking to you. If you thought it’s their job to find jobs for senior executives you probably never engaged a search firm to build your team which means any or all of these three things: a. You live in an emerging market, b. You don’t understand how this business and the market for executives works (even if you were placed in your current role by one). c. You have no relationship with any.

Read the specific do’s and don’ts on how to deal with search firms, including what games not to play, here.

3. Do not call yourself a consultant just to fill the gap in your resume, when you have no career aspiration to become one. If you do, don’t waste any time and meet the right guys at McKinsey or similar, right away. If you don’t do anything right now job wise, find something to do that’s meaningful. You can find out more about that and about how to look for a job the right way here.

Everybody knows what’s happening at Microsoft, the professional press covered the story from all angles, critique was raised where critique was due. If you missed it here’s one for taste.

I’d like to raise a tricky question: can Microsoft change?

The Nokia part is not relevant here, that company had clearly lost its identity over 7 years ago, what happened after the acquisition was in a way a natural unfolding of events, the final blow being simply administered by a glorified bureaucrat.

In order to change you need an identity. Better put: in order to change purposefully, you need an identity – Nokia also changed but without an identity, that change was anything but purposeful.

How can we judge the ability of an organization to change purposefully?

By looking at it through the lens of identity. We define identity as the synthetic whole of 3+1 factors: Purpose, Unfolding (of potentials), Style + Awareness (Identity Map). I use the Identity Map not only for complex organizations but also for individual CEOs. The 4 factors are almost never in perfect balance and that is normal. Huge discrepancies however are red flags.

Satya Nadella, the new CEO of Microsoft shot out his first email to employees; it was supposed to be a statement – yet it was full of platitudes. This either means that there is no concept for the organization (which is indispensable for a defendable purpose and all strategies) or that there is no awareness of it (this is of course fatal in the CEO’s case) and how it translates to communications, strategies, plans and tons of other things, or that there is a latent concept, but the top guys can’t articulate and actualize potentials and possibilities (lack of leadership).

Nadella spent half of his life at Microsoft and a simple and admittedly cruel rule of thumb is that massive change can’t be made from the inside. History provides only few exceptions on this scale, like IBM and GE for example, but their cultures were fundamentally different. The crude patterns at Microsoft are:

- started by a tech geek based on a strong concept. Markets started to change, the concept was not renewed, big opportunities were missed.

- taken over by the right hand man, an out of control sales guy, decline continues. Not only in the market but inside the company: nodding culture, bureaucracy.

- another insider takes over the company, which is -coming after Ballmer- not a good sign.

If we look for parallels, this is similar to RIM’s case, when a polished insider took over after the founders stepped down: just maintaining the prevailing patterns until they ran their course.

Microsoft is big and in tech this always becomes a problem. “Small is beautiful” as Nassim Nicholas Taleb put it.

Not only does Microsoft have to become significantly less bureaucratic, they need massive change even to be able to remain bureaucratic (loosing employees to more innovative firms, etc.) and this is of course not the right course of action.

For a re-birth, which MF needs they need to redefine their identity!

As it was the case with Nokia and RIM, not only is there little balance in the Identity Map of the company, it seems that there are elements missing and this will cause even more drastic change – strategic ones, not operational ones, like the recent layoffs.

The missing elements of the identity could be even good news since it’d be easier to create than to change them- if there was real leadership in place, which doesn’t seem to be the case.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Nadella fulfilled just a temporary role for the cleanup and for a transition, just like Elop at Nokia or Thorsten Heins at RIM – and these are very grim analogies!

If this transition doesn’t happen towards a well defined end – and there is none in sight- the decline will exacerbate, while the board is desperately appointing a new CEO every 2-3 years (again, without a concept) hoping that one will do a miracle (see the Yahoo saga):

The key lies in organicity: while all organizations are highly mechanical, each has a certain level of organicity.

Focusing on fostering innovation with mechanical measures, instead of focusing on increasing the level of organicity, is comparible to trying to increase sales by talking more about it, instead of connecting with customers.

Is ironic, although absolutely not surprising that organicity is not on the executive agenda (it hasn’t even made it to spell-check programs)!

An article with this title came up in my news feed from the Harvard Business Review; it was written by an HR manager working for a startup and dealt with pre-programmed / taught answers mostly from people fresh out of university. The point there was that these answers are not honest and not being honest translates to not admitting problems, which could be fatal in startups.

We will deal with this question from a completely different perspective.

I didn’t take the effort to research who came up with the “what is your greatest weakness” question in an interview setting – probably an empowered bureaucrat: the question is unfair and ill-willed and if asked “in general”, it is plain idiotic. If the interviewer has good intentions (whatever that means) and still asks this question, he lacks critical thinking or doesn’t think, period. This is why it has become an issue how to answer it.

An acceptable way to approach this for anyone with some degree of self-respect:

If you are a specialist: tell them technical areas: I am not that strong in Python yet, I am still learning new tricks with macros and similar. If you want to dig more, ask my wife, boyfriend, roommate, whatever, but I don’t see how it’s relevant.

If you are going for management or leadership roles and you hear this question, it’s probably time to walk: they either use this because they don’t want you or they are wasting your time with incompetent paper pushers.

If you decide that it’s worth your time to address the question:

Tell them the management principles that you operate by, like “I always try to set clear expectations”, “walk the talk”, ” I fire manipulators”, “I put integrity above profits”, “I hire the best and let them flourish”, “I treat people like adults”, whatever. Then ask: could this be a weakness in this organization?

Leadership is based on supra individual principles and principles are neither good nor bad: in this context the weakness is always the individual himself.

If the interviewer is more interested in discussing principles than weaknesses, you’re in the right place.

Getting your team to follow you through the good times and even more importantly the tough times, is the hallmark of a great leader

One of the best ways of judging the quality and ability of of a leader is by looking at the levels of loyalty they inspire from their staff. Getting your team to follow you through the good times and even more importantly the tough times, is the hallmark of a great leader.

And to get people to follow you when things are not going well you have to make them want to stay with you on the journey. In other words you need your staff to be totally loyal to the cause and to you as individual.

There are plenty of people out there who expect and demand loyalty from their employees at all times. They think that giving someone a job is enough of reason to expect them to be completely loyal and totally committed.

However, true and lasting loyalty is not simply about giving someone a wage and than demanding they follow you through thick and thin.

The fact is that loyalty is something that has to be earned and comes as a result of a relationship that is built up over a long time.

Some people think that you can lead through fear and that all you have to do is tell an individual to do something without expecting to be questioned in any way. But to get the very best performance from people you have to have a mutual understanding and the kind of relationship where you can sit down and have an honest and open discussion.

Of course in a business, especially one in the early days of its life, there can only ever be one boss. In my experience trying to run a company by committee and as a democracy is always going to end in failure. I have seen this being the case at many international companies, and decisions took too long to be made. There needs to be a clear decision maker -someone at the top of an organisation who makes the big decisions and takes the ultimate responsibility.

But as a company grows and expands, there is a need for a clearly defined structure and a board of directors. When you get to a situation when you have one individual micro-managing, it can lead to paralysis.

However even as the business and the management team expands it is still important that the person at the very top commands respect and loyalty.

All of us individuals like to feel appreciated and like to be told that we are doing a good job from time to time. Showing empathy and understanding as a leader does not means that you are soft and it can be the best way to motivate members of the team

Great leaders are able to give something back to everyone, no matter what their position is in the hierarchy.

Admittedly this is somewhat provocative, but perhaps not that far – fetched.

Considering that over 90% of companies are mediocre, it doesn’t make much sense to even raise the question of strategy. Companies are mediocre because they have no leadership who could provide a concept that may serve as the foundation of any kind of strategy, so they are, without exception playing catch-up. Their „leaders” are staring in the rear-view mirror and at various indicators while stepping ever heavier on the gas pedal. All the while there is only one song coming from the speakers at maximum volume: faster!

Paradoxically they are terrified of taking their eyes off the rear-view mirror and focusing on the road.

People leading leading firms do precisely this. There is no noise, their attention is proportionately spread between the road, the mirrors and the indicators with most attention dedicated to the road, they feel the car and most of all: they know precisely why they are driving and they know it pretty well where they are heading.

There is no strategy without a concept!

It’s easy to find out if there really is a concept behind a written and „internalized” strategy; we just need to ask the question: what is your strategy based on? If the CEO’s answer is quantitative or is based on outside factors, like last year’s results, market data, competitive behaviour, etc., then there is no concept.

There is no focus without strategy

This is also easy to test. Just see what happens in the controlling department in budgeting or reporting times: so called bullshit strategies, that are not based on a defendable concept but are dreamed up by management in offsite sessions somewhere in the mountains or beach resorts, simply can’t be implemented. If they still appear to be implemented, it is mostly because the controlling team is diligently correcting the numbers in the reporting period.

The organization is weak without focus

A weak organization is slow and reactive. It is passive. There is simply nothing to organize around. Most of the people don’t do what they should be doing and almost everybody performs way below their abilities – 10-12 hours a day.

We can immediately recognize a weak organization: it’s enough to sit around at the main reception for 5-15 minutes during lunchtime and listen to the people. They are typically cynical, complaining or you can see fear in the eyes.

A weak organization is a sign of no leadership

Without a leader there is no concept, strategy is forgotten and resources are wasted on trying to keep together a disintegrating organization while the company is missing opportunities and falls behind.

According to the association of executive search consultants Thorndike Deland established the first executive search firm in 1926, focusing on retail executives. He charged clients a retainer and 5% of the first year’s salary of the executive.

Top management consulting firms like McKinsey and Booz, Allen & Hamilton would also provide executive search services until conflicts of interests became an issue and certain partners left the firm to establish executive search business.

The first one was Sid Boyden who left Booz, Allen & Hamilton and launched a company named after himself in 1946. Booz, Allen & Hamilton continued offering executive search until 1980.

Ward Howell left McKinsey to establish his own firm in 1951 and consequently McKinsey exited the business. For some reason he also decided to name the company after himself.

Gardner Heidrick and John Struggles were also Booz, Allen & Hamilton alumnus; they established their executive search practice in 1953. Curiously the new firm was named Heidrick & Struggles.

Spencer Stuart used to work for Heidrick and Struggles for merely one year in 1955, then he left and the year Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins were jamming spontaneously in one studio, he established his own firm, calling it quite surprisingly Spencer Stuart. It is interesting to note that he was concerned that he had entered the business too late; he considered the space already too crowded back then!

Egon Zehnder left Spencer Stuart and launched the firm bearing his name in Switzerland in 1964.

Lester Korn and Richard Ferry left accounting careers behind to get into executives search in 1969, and Russell Reynolds used to be a commercial banker at J.P. Morgan – he also launched in 1969, when the American charts were dominated by Led Zeppelin, Neil Diamond, the Beatles and the Jackson 5 and when Neil Armstrong took a casual walk on the moon – whose name luckily remained “the Moon” – perhaps because Armstrong was not a consultant.

A lot of things changed between 1926 and 1946, between 1946 and 1969 and between 1969 and 1989 and of course since then: new industries emerged, new business models appeared, management theories came and go, the average tenure of a CEO had decreased to 2-5 years, depending on the industry and the geography, market leadership means different things today than 60 years ago, success factors for companies has changed, transparency has increased, the public’s perception about companies and corporate life has changed, entrepreneurship has evolved considerably, the role of board of directors has changed dramatically, how we work and communicate has changed, careers have changed, change itself has come to mean something entirely different than 40 years ago.

Only one thing has not changed much at all is executive search. Some firms have added more services perhaps to counter balance the decline in their search business but they didn’t change the search business itself.

Well, it seems something has to change!

The mistakes are getting more expensive: appointing the wrong CEO may cause the demise of companies employing 100s of thousands of people, the elimination of a large chunk of people’s retirement funds, it may affect the economy of countries and regions and it may even cause global financial crisis.

Just to stick to less complex examples it’s enough to think about the recent mistakes HP’s board made with CEO decisions, including how they ended up hiring Leo Apotheker, Yahoo!’s years of inability to appoint the right CEO, Nokia’s and RIM’s ongoing story and the list continues.

Boards in some cases are absolutely clueless, inert or indifferent when it comes to appointments. They should be responsible. The old paradigms are no longer valid. Today it should be clear to everybody that we operate in constant crisis; to assume otherwise is a fatal mistake. But first things first! ….to be continued

Celebrities were created by the herd; they do everything possible to comply with the expectations of the herd and the herd celebrates their success – this is the de facto definition of success.The most successful celebrities manage to exceed expectations – and this is not a good thing!

The expectations are well defined and clear: how to dress, how to speak and how to think.

It would be a waste of time to list all herd / celebrity segments, so we just pick 3 to make the point:

- pop/holywood

- suits

- geeks

For anyone who tend to form their opinion independently, it is obvious that these are not real segments since the herd behind them is the same.

Personal branding consultants help the wannabe celebrities comply, teaching them repulsive methods to exceed, which could be summed up by the following: be louder, go farther (down the herd lane), go faster. They are teaching other stuff too, like being passionate about all this, that telling everybody that you’re the greatest is not distasteful but shows confidence, that wanting what others what even more is what makes you unique and similar non-sense.

Now these branding consultants and similar bottom feeders, like “introversion experts”, behavioral coaches and others, are following of course their own advice and call themselves authorities and gurus(!) every chance they get, do speeches, pull together a book or two on the collective wisdom, quoting the quotes of other celebrities and pop a champagne at the award ceremonies of their respective fields together with their herd, celebrating each other.

How about stepping out of the herd, wash off the nauseating smell and start again on true fundamentals?

People usually polarize between “what should be” and “what is“. Their position on this scale depicts very distinct types.

The “what’s possible” usually becomes a matter of opinion but -quite logically- the closer it is to “what is”, the more likely it is that the possibility may become an actuality… but: closer to whose reality…?

What I describe as intellectual cowardice is when people who know better (have the experience, have seen proof, have the intellectual capacity to recognize and embrace potentials) decide to take the comfortable position of the lowest common denominator, the “what is”, and against all they know, they don’t sway from it one inch. Their motivation is typically career related: it’s safe to be the guy who challenges potentials or the potential. Not only is this motivation not heroic, very often it is also ill-willed and cynical in that it makes it look like that the “what should be guy” doesn’t even know what’s going on; and of course nothing is farther from the truth.

This clip, depicting a hypothetical scenario of Nikola Tesla (what should be) pitching to VCs (what is), provides a great example for all this. While the clip is incredibly funny, it’s not an exaggeration and it’s a perfect snapshot of what I mean by cowardice and often even sabotage with or without arrogance as a style element. http://bit.ly/19OBSEn .

In highly bureaucratic organizations you can’t make a career by being the “what should be guy”; such guys typically get to play only when it’s already too late.

In highly entrepreneurial environments the “what should be” guys should lead. In an ideal world both the VCs and the founders are of this breed!; and the way they lead is very different from how the “what is guys” lead.

Otherwise do any of the following and watch the dynamics change:

- don’t invite “what is guys” to meetings about strategy

- make rules, like: you’re not allowed to make statements about things everybody in the group is aware of (like what is the budget (e.g. we don’t have a budget for that), what day it is (e.g. we are not there yet), basic math (e.g. that’s gonna cost us), etc.)

- put “what is guys” in problem solving or solution development positions